OnePlus has delivered a flagship handset at a lower price point than the likes of Samsung and Apple. Compromises have been made in a number of areas to allow for that, notably the camera hardware is not as refined as the higher priced competition, there’s only a mono speaker for audio output, and it’s still lacking wireless charging.

…for your average consumer on the high street, the OnePlus 6T is the quintessential ‘really good smartphone’.

If you’re looking for a more in-depth discussion about the OnePlus 6T as a smartphone and how it all fits into the ecosystem of Android, head over to that review. Here is going to be less about specifications and more about practicality.

For me what makes the OnePlus 6T a practical smartphone while travelling was its battery life. The 3700 mAh battery is above average and while it is not topping out the capacity (with some flagships reaching 4000 mAh), I never had to reach into my bag to pull out a battery charger during the day. This was a genuine ‘morning to night’ charging experience.

OnePlus has put a lot of work into the OxygenOS to make it efficient and battery friendly, and it has paid off.

While travelling I was able to switch between music and video playback on flights between Edinburgh, Amsterdam, and Minsk; as well as the travel time to the airports and the long layover. During the working days in Minsk I could handle email, capture photos, and work online with ease.

Is this a tightly regulated battery test? No. And I purposely was carrying a USB charger to top up the phone if needed, but it remained unused. As a working device, the OnePlus 6T never stopped.

OnePlus 6T (image: Ewan Spence)

Ewan Spence

One of the features that I really appreciate is the dual-SIM support. Belarus is outside the European Union, so using data abroad meant looking at eye-watering prices of £36 for 5 megabytes of data. It was far cheaper to buy a local SIM with data prices of £2 for 1 gigabyte of data. That’s a ridiculous roaming mark-up… but everyone has my UK number. So it’s a simple matter to keep that SIM card running for incoming calls and texts, with the second Belarussian SIM for my data (when I’m outside of hotel and office Wi-Fi).

With data unlocked, key apps and interactions were available to use at all times. There’s no need to talk in-depth about the usefulness of WhatsApps, the ability to make outgoing calls over WiFi or 4G as required, or the power of Google Maps when in unfamiliar territory; they all worked well individually and together, OxygenOS made sure they were accessible and easy to switch to, so the promise of the software was delivered.

Junior Eurovision 2019 (image: Ewan Spence)

Ewan Spence

Then there’s the camera. If I’m travelling, I’m taking pictures. If I’m covering an event, I’m taking pictures. If I want memories, I’m taking pictures. They say the best camera you can have is the one that is in your pocket at the right time. The OnePlus 6T certainly meets that goal, but then delivers more.

That extra delivery comes in software - the physical hardware remains the same as the OnePlus 6. One noticeable change in the 6T is the software processing is biasing towards a more natural look. Colors are not turned up to be cartoonishly bright and vibrant. Strong colors still shine through but photos have a much more natural look.

For the vat majority of the time I left the camera in the automatic mode, but OnePlus has left the pro options easily available for those who want to work directly with ISO, shutter speed, and white balance. Options for saving images in the RAW format and changing aspect ratios are also here.

Minsk, 2019 (image: Ewan Spence)

Ewan Spence

Let’s talk about the camera's Night mode, because it has been promoted heavily by OnePlus during the launch. Low light performance was a weak point for the OnePlus 6, so it is good to see this addressed in the 6T. Using the automatic setting there is a clear improvement in the quality of pictures taken at night, but everything steps up when you activate night mode.

By having a longer exposure and then working with extra captured light, night mode picks up more detail and better contrast of the lights. It does take time to do these calculations so it is best used in static situations - trying it in a fast moving light show at a concert shortens the capture time although the calculations do improve the resulting image.

Junior Eurovision 2019 (image: Ewan Spence)

Ewan Spence

The camera on the OnePlus 6T does improve on the OnePlus 6 camera out of the box, although as the updates are in software these have been rolled back to the OnePlus 6 as well. That’s part of OnePlus’ strategy to offer ongoing support across the handset range for a number of years (and the OnePlus 6 is only six months old at this point).

For me the output from the camera is good enough for reportage and memories, OnePlus has improved the output, but it’s not quite matching smartphone cameras that come in at twice the price. If you want to know the area where the price has the most impact, it’s in the final few percentage points of the camera.

In my world, the camera is not at the top of the list of things I look for - it hits the above average mark and that’s good enough for me. The all-day battery, dual-SIM support, media support, and clean operating system are more important to me.

The camera output is nowhere close to being a deal-breaker for me. Out in the real world the OnePlus 6T is a smartphone that I can trust. It’s there through the day for work, it keeps me entertained while travelling, and having a device that I can just ‘pick up and know it will work’ is important. That’s the real victory for OnePlus here - it has made a smartphone that fits nicely into my workflow, handles all my apps, and just works while I am travelling.